AN EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY
is the earliest as it remains the best, condensed, yet withal substantive
treatment of the Great Message of the doctrines of the Wisdom-Religion, or
Theosophy.

It was originally issued as “A Theosophical
Tract” by the Aryan Theosophical Society of New York City in December, 1887.
This “Tract” was printed in full in Mr. Judge’s magazine, The Path, Volume II,
No. 10, January, 1888,—a brief or digest of six pages, rather than a treatment;
a table rather than its contents.

The foundation of The Path, the return
of Madame Blavatsky to active effort
in the West by her residence in London and
the commencement of her magazine, Lucifer; the public announcement of the
Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society; the foundation of the Blavatsky
Lodge at London; the publication of
The Secret Doctrine; the organization of
the American Section of the Theosophical Society—all these occurred contemporaneously in the years 1886-1888, and be-tokened a new orbit of action, a
great revival of Theosophy pure and simple in the Western World. An Epitome of
Theosophy, even in its original immature form, had no small share in this
revival. So great was its circulation in the United States, so great the need
elsewhere, that the Theosophical Publication Society in England requested Mr.
Judge to revise the leaflet for issuance in Great Britain.

Mr. Judge accordingly re-wrote entirely the
original Tract as put together at his suggestion by Mr. Alexander Fullerton and
others, enlarging it to a booklet, and sent the manuscript to the Theosophical
Publication Society at London. Its managers wrote back that the treatment was
entirely too “deep” for the average mind; that what was needed was something
“light.” Mr. Judge replied to this criticism in characteristic fashion. His
answer will be found in Volume II of the Letters That Have Helped Me, in No.IV
of that book. He says (in part):

“It is with great regret that I learn from
recent London advices that the Managers of the Society there think that the
Tract, ‘Epitome of Theosophy,’ which appeared in The Path, is ‘too advanced to
be reprinted now, and that what is needed is a ‘stepping-stone from fiction to
philosophy.’

“Permit me to say that I cannot agree with
this opinion, nor with the policy which is outlined by it. The opinion is
erroneous, and the policy is weak as well as being out of accord with that of
the Masters.

“If I had made up that Epitome wholly myself I
might have some hesitation in speaking this way, but I did not. The general idea
of such a series of tracts was given to me some two years ago, and this one was
prepared by several students who know what the people need. It is at once
comprehensive and fundamental. It covers most of the ground, and if any sincere
reader grasps it he will have food for his reflection of the sort needed.

“If, however, we are to proceed by a mollified
passage from folly (which is fiction) to philosophy, then we at once diverge
from the path marked out for us by the Masters; and for this statement I can
refer to letters from Them in my hands. I need only draw your attention to the
fact that when those Masters began to cause Their servants to give out matter in
India, They did not begin with fiction, but with stern facts. We are not seeking
to cater to a lot of fiction readers and curiosity hunters, but to the pressing
needs of earnest minds. Fiction readers never influenced a nation’s progress.
And these earnest minds do not desire, and ought not to be treated to a gruel
which the sentence just quoted would seem to indicate as their fate.

“I therefore respectfully urge upon you that
the weak and erroneous policy to which I have referred shall not be followed,
but that strong lines of action be taken, and that we leave fiction to the
writers who profit by it or who think that thus people’s minds can be turned to
the Truth. If a contrary line be adopted then we will not only disappoint the
Master (if that be possible) but we will in a very large sense be guilty of
making false representations to a growing body of subscribers here as
elsewhere.”

These wise counsels of Mr. Judge, fortified by
the advice of Madame Blavatsky, prevailed with the Managers of the T.P.S., and
the Epitome was accordingly issued in the summer of 1888. Subsequently the work
has been reissued and circulated by various Theosophical bodies.

As we feel that the present cycle of effort in
the Theosophical Movement closely parallels the be-

5

ginnings of the great renaissance of
1886-1888, and that a whole new generation of incarnated Souls are wrestling
with the same problems, and suffer from the same needs, we think it timely and
fitting to make available to them this wonderful Epitome of the only doctrines
which have power to heal, by teaching, the nations. Hence the present Edition.

THEOSOPHY,
the Wisdom-Religion, has existed from immemorial time. It offers us a theory of
nature and of life which is founded upon knowledge acquired by the Sages of the
past, more especially those of the East; and its higher students claim that this
knowledge is not imagined or inferred, but that it is a knowledge of facts seen
and known by those who are willing to comply with the conditions requisite for
seeing and knowing.

Theosophy, meaning knowledge of or about God
(not in the sense of a personal anthropomorphic God, but in that of divine
“godly” wisdom), and the term “God” being universally accepted as including the
whole of both the known and the unknown, it follows that “Theosophy” must imply
wisdom respecting the absolute; and, since the absolute is without beginning and
eternal, this wisdom must have existed always. Hence Theosophy is sometimes
called the Wisdom-Religion, because from immemorial time it has had knowledge of
all the laws governing the spiritual, the moral, and the material.

The theory of nature and of life which it offers is not one that was
at first speculatively laid down and then proved by adjusting facts or
conclusions to fit it; but is an explanation of existence, cosmic and
individual, derived from knowledge reached by those who have acquired
the power to see behind the curtain that hides the operations of
nature from the ordinary mind. Such Beings are called Sages, using the
term in its highest sense. Of late

they have been called Mahatmas and
Adepts. In ancient times they were known as the Rishis and
Mahârishis-the last being a word that means Great Rishis. It is not claimed that these exalted beings, or Sages, have existed only
in
the East. They are known to have lived in all parts of the globe, in obedience
to the cyclic laws referred to below. But as far as concerns the present
development of the human race on this planet, they are now to be found in
the East, although the fact may be that some of them had, in remote times,
retreated from even the American shores.

There being of necessity various grades among the students of this
Wisdom-Religion, it stands to reason that those belonging to the lower
degrees are able to give out only so much of the knowledge as is the
appanage of the grade they have reached, and depend, to some extent,
for further information upon students who are higher yet. It is these
higher students for whom the claim is asserted that their knowledge is
not mere inference, but that it concerns realities seen and known by
them. While some of them are connected with the Theosophical Society,
they are yet above it. The power to see and absolutely know such laws
is surrounded by natural inherent regulations which must be complied
with as conditions precedent; and it is, therefore, not possible to
respond to the demand of the worldly man for an immediate statement of
this wisdom, insomuch as he could not comprehend it until those
conditions are fulfilled. As this knowledge deals with laws and states
of matter, and of consciousness undreamed of by the "practical"
Western world, it can only be grasped, piece by

piece, as the student
pushes forward the demolition of his preconceived notions, that are
due either to inadequate or to erroneous theories. It is claimed by
these higher students that, in the Occident especially, a false method
of reasoning has for many centuries prevailed, resulting in a
universal habit of mind which causes men to look upon many effects as
causes, and to regard that which is real as the unreal, putting
meanwhile the unreal in the place of the real. As a minor example, the
phenomena of mesmerism and clairvoyance have, until lately, been
denied by Western science, yet there have always been numerous persons
who know for themselves, by incontrovertible introspective evidence,
the truth of these phenomena, and, in some instances, understand
their
cause and rationale.

The following are some of the fundamental propositions of Theosophy:

The spirit in man is the only real and permanent part of his being;
the rest of his nature being variously compounded. And since decay is
incident to all composite things, everything in man but his Spirit is
impermanent.

Further, the universe being one thing and not diverse, and everything
within it being connected with the whole and with every other thing
therein, of which upon the upper plane (below referred to ) there is a
perfect knowledge, no act or thought occurs without each portion of
the great whole perceiving and noting it. Hence all are inseparably
bound together by the tie of Brotherhood.

This first fundamental proposition of Theosophy postulates that the
universe is not an aggregation of diverse unities but that it is one
whole.

This whole is what is denominated "Deity" by Western Philosophers, and
"Para-Brahm" by the Hindu Vedantins. It may be called the
Unmanifested, containing within itself the potency of every form of
manifestation, together with the laws governing those manifestations.
Further, it is taught that there is no creation of worlds in the
theological sense; but that their appearance is due strictly to
evolution. When the time comes for the Unmanifested to manifest as an
objective Universe, which it does periodically, it emanates a Power or
"The First Cause"-so called because it itself is the rootless root of
that Cause, and called in the East the "Causeless Cause." The first
Cause we may call Brahma, or Ormazd, or Osiris, or by any name we
please. The projection into time of the influence or so-called "breath
of Brahma" causes all the worlds and the beings upon them to gradually
appear. They remain in manifestation just as long as that influence
continues to proceed forth in evolution. After long ćons the outbreathing, evolutionary influence slackens, and the universe begins
to go into obscuration, or pralaya, until, the "breath" being fully
indrawn, no objects remain, because nothing is but Brahma. Care must
be taken by the student to make a distinction between Brahma (the
impersonal Parabrahm) and Brahmâ the manifested Logos. A discussion of
the means used by this power in acting would be out of place in this
Epitome, but of those means Theosophy also treats.

This breathing-forth is known as a Manvantara, or the Manifestation of
the world between two Manus ( from Manu,and Antara "between" ) and
the completion of the inbreathing brings with

it Pralaya, or
destruction. It is from these truths that the erroneous doctrines of
"creation" and the "last judgment" have sprung. Such Manvantaras and
Pralayas have eternally occurred, and will continue to take place
periodically and forever.

For the purpose of a Manvantara two so-called eternal principles are
postulated, that is, Purusha and Prakriti (or spirit and matter),
because both are ever present and conjoined in each manifestation.
Those terms are used here because no equivalent for them exists in
English. Purusha is called "spirit," and Prakriti "matter," but this
Purusha is not the unmanifested, nor is Prakriti matter as known to
science; the Aryan Sages therefore declare that there is a higher
spirit still, called Purushottama. The reason for this is that at the
night of Brahmâ, or the so-called indrawing of his breath, both
Purusha and Prakriti are absorbed in the Unmanifested; a conception
which is the same as the idea underlying the Biblical expression
"remaining in the bosom of the Father."

This brings us to the doctrine of Universal Evolution as expounded by
the Sages of the Wisdom-Religion. The Spirit, or Purusha, they say,
proceeds from Brahma through the various forms of matter evolved at
the same time, beginning in the world of the spiritual from the
highest and in the material world from the lowest form. The lowest
form is one unknown as yet to modern science. Thus, therefore, the
mineral, vegetable and animal forms each imprison a spark of the
Divine, a portion of the indivisible Purusha.

These sparks struggle to "return to the Father," or in other words, to
secure self-con-

sciousness and at last come into the highest form, on
Earth, that of man, where alone self-conscious-ness is possible to
them. The period, calculated in human time, during which this
evolution goes on embraces millions of ages. Each spark of divinity
has, therefore, millions of ages in which to accomplish its
mission-that of obtaining complete self-consciousness while in the
form of man. But by this is not meant that the mere act of coming into
human form of itself confers self-consciousness upon this divine
spark. That great work may be accomplished during the Manvantara in
which a Divine spark reaches the human form, or it may not; all
depends upon the individual's own will and efforts. Each particular
spirit thus goes through the Manvantara, or enters into manifestation
for its own enrichment and for that of the Whole. Mahâtmâs and Rishis
are thus gradually evolved during a Manvantara, and become, after its
expiration, planetary spirits, who guide the evolutions of other
future planets. The planetary spirits of our globe are those who in
previous Manvantaras-or days of Brahmâ- made the efforts, and became
in the course of that long period Mahâtmâs.

Each Manvantara is for the same end and purpose, so that the Mahatmas
who have now attained those heights, or those who may become such in
the succeeding years of the present Manvantara, will probably be the
planetary spirits of the next Manvantara for this or other planets.
This system is thus seen to be based upon the identity of Spiritual
Being, and, under the name of "Universal Brotherhood," constitutes
the basic

idea of the Theosophical Society, whose object is the realization of
that Brotherhood among men.

The Sages say that this Purusha is the basis of all manifested
objects. Without it nothing could exist or cohere. It interpenetrates
everything everywhere. It is the reality of which, or upon which,
those things called real by us are mere images. As Purusha reaches to
and embraces all beings, they are all connected together; and in or on
the plane where that Purusha is, there is a perfect consciousness of
every act, thought, object, and circumstance, whether supposed to
occur there, or on this plane, or any other. For below the spirit and
above the intellect is a plane of consciousness in which experiences
are noted, commonly called man's "spiritual nature;" this is
frequently said to be as susceptible of culture as his body or his
intellect.

This upper plane is the real register of all sensations and
experiences, although there are other registering planes. It is
sometimes called the "subconscious mind." Theosophy, however, holds
that it is a misuse of terms to say that the spiritual nature can be
cultivated. The real object to be kept in view is to so open up or
make porous the lower nature that the spiritual nature may shine
through it and become the guide and ruler. It is only "cultivated" in
the sense of having a vehicle prepared for its use, into which it may descend.
In other words, it is held that the real man, who is the higher self—being
the spark of the Divine before alluded to—overshadows
the visible being, which has the possibility of becoming united to that spark.
Thus it is said that the higher Spirit is not in the man, but above him. It is
always

peaceful, unconcerned,
blissful, and full of absolute knowledge. It continually partakes of
the Divine state, being continually that state itself, "conjoined with
the Gods, it feeds upon Ambrosia." The object of the student is to let
the light of that spirit shine through the lower coverings.

This "spiritual culture" is only attainable as the grosser interests,
passions, and demands of the flesh are subordinated to the interests,
aspirations and needs of the higher nature; and this is a matter of
both system and established law.

This spirit can only become the ruler when the firm intellectual
acknowledgment or admission is first made that IT alone is. And, as
stated above, it being not only the person concerned but also the
whole, all selfishness must be eliminated from the lower nature before
its divine state can be reached. So long as the smallest personal or
selfish desire—even
for spiritual attainment for our own sake—remains, so long is the desired end put off. Hence the above term
"demands of the flesh" really covers also demands that are not of the
flesh, and its proper rendering would be "desires of the personal
nature, including those of the individual soul. "

When systematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid system
and law, men attain to clear insight into the immaterial, spiritual
world, and their interior faculties apprehend truth as immediately and
readily as physical faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental
faculties those of reason. Or, in the words used by some of them,
"They are able to look directly upon ideas;" and hence their testimony
to such truth is as trustwor-

thy as is that of scientists or
philosophers to truth in their respective fields.

In the course of this spiritual training such men acquire perception
of, and control over, various forces in Nature unknown to other men,
and thus are able to perform works usually called "miraculous," though
really but the result of larger knowledge of natural law. What these
powers are may be found in Patanjali's "Yoga Philosophy."

Their testimony as to super-sensuous truth, verified by their
possession of such powers, challenges candid examination from every
religious mind.

Turning now to the system expounded by these sages, we find, in the
first place, an account of cosmogony, the past and future of this
earth and other planets, the evolution of life through elemental,
mineral, vegetable, animal and human forms, as they are called.

These "passive life elementals" are unknown to modern science, though
sometimes approached by it as a subtle material agent in the
production of life, whereas they are a form of life itself.

Each Kalpa, or grand period, is divided into four ages or yugas, each
lasting many thousands of years, and each one being marked by a
predominant characteristic. These are the Satya-yuga (or age of
truth), the Tretya-yuga, the Dvâpara-yuga, and our present Kali-yuga
(or age of darkness), which began five thousand years back. The word
"darkness" here refers to spiritual and not material darkness. In this
age, however, all causes bring about their effects much more rapidly
than in any other age—a fact due to the intensified momentum of
"evil," as the course of its cycle is

about rounding towards that of a
new cycle of truth. Thus a sincere lover of the race can accomplish
more in three incarnations during Kali-Yuga, than he could in a much
greater number in any other age. The darkness of this age is not
absolute, but is greater than that of other ages; its main tendency
being towards materiality, while having some mitigation in occasional
ethical or scientific advance conducive to the well-being of the race,
by the removal of immediate causes of crime or disease.

Our earth is one of a chain of seven planets, it alone being on the
visible plane, while the six others are on different planes, and
therefore invisible. (The other planets of our solar system belong
each to a chain of seven.) And the life-wave passes from the higher to
the lower in the chain until it reaches our earth, and then ascends
and passes to the three others on the opposite arc, and thus seven
times. The evolution of forms is coincident with this progress, the
tide of life bearing with it the mineral and vegetable forms, until
each globe in turn is ready to receive the human life wave. Of these
globes our earth is the fourth.

Humanity passes from globe to globe in a series of Rounds, first
circling about each globe, and reincarnating upon it a fixed number of
times. Concerning the human evolution on the concealed planets or
globes little is permitted to be said. We have to concern ourselves
with our Earth alone. The latter, when the wave of humanity has
reached it for the last time (in this, our Fourth Round), began to
evolute man, subdividing him into races. Each of these races when it
has,

through evolution, reached the period known as "the moment of
choice" and decided its future destiny as an individual race, begins
to disappear. The races are separated, moreover, from each other by
catastrophes of nature, such as the subsidence of continents and great
natural convulsions. Coincidentally with the development of races the
development of specialized senses takes place; thus our fifth race has
so far developed five senses.

The Sages further tell us that the affairs of this world and its
people are subject to cyclic laws, and during any one cycle the rate
or quality of progress appertaining to a different cycle is not
possible. These cyclic laws operate in each age. As the ages grow
darker the same laws prevail, only the cycles are shorter; that is,
they are the same length in the absolute sense, but go over the given
limit in a shorter period of time. These laws impose restrictions on
the progress of the race. In a cycle, where all is ascending and
descending, the Adepts must wait until the time comes before they can
aid the race to ascend. They cannot, and must not, interfere with
Karmic law. Thus they begin to work actively again in the spiritual
sense, when the cycle is known by them to be approaching its turning
point.

At the same time these cycles have no hard lines or points of
departure or inception, inasmuch as one may be ending or drawing to a
close for sometime after another has already begun. They thus overlap
and shade into one another, as day does into night; and it is only
when the one has completely ended and the other has really begun by
bringing out its blossoms, that we can say we are in a new cycle.
It may be illustrated by compar-

ing two adjacent cycles to two
interlaced circles, where the circumference of one touches the center
of the other, so that the moment where one ended and the other began
would be at the point where the circumferences intersected each other.
Or by imagining a man as representing, in the act of walking, the
progress of the cycles; his rate of advancement can only be obtained
by taking the distance covered by his paces, the points at the middle
of each pace, between the feet, being the beginning of cycles and
their ending.

The cyclic progress is assisted, or the deterioration further
permitted, in this way; at a time when the cycle is ascending,
developed and progressed Beings, known in Sanskrit by the term
"Jńânis," descend to this earth from other spheres where the cycle is
going down, in order that they may also help the spiritual progress of
this globe. In like manner they leave this sphere when our cycle
approaches darkness. These Jńânis must not, however, be confounded
with the Mahâtmâs and Adepts mentioned above. The right aim of true
Theosophists should, therefore, be so to live that their influence may
be conducive for the dispelling of darkness to the end that such Jńânis may turn again towards this sphere.

Theosophy also teaches the existence of a universal diffused and
highly ethereal medium, which has been called the "Astral Light" and
"Akâsa." It is the repository of all past, present, and future events,
and in it are recorded the effects of spiritual causes, and of all
acts and thoughts from the direction of either spirit or matter. It
may be called the Book of the Recording Angel.

Akâsa, however, is a misnomer when it is confused with Ether or the
astral light of the Kabalists. Akâsa is the noumenon of the phenomenal
Ether or astral light proper, for Akâsa is infinite, impartite,
intangible, its only production being Sound.*

And this astral light is material and not spirit. It is, in fact, the
lower principle of that cosmic body of which akâsa is the highest. It
has the power of retaining all images. This includes a statement that
each thought as well as word and act makes an image there. These
images may be said to have two lives. First. Their own as an image.
Second. The impress left by them in the matrix of the astral light. In
the upper realm of this light there is no such thing as space or time
in the human sense. All future events are the thoughts and acts of
men; these are producers in advance of the picture of the event which
is to occur. Ordinary men continually, recklessly, and wickedly, are
making these events sure to come to pass, but the Sages, Mahâtmâs, and
the Adepts of the good law, make only such pictures as are in
accordance with Divine law, because they control the production of
their thought. In the astral light are all the differentiated sounds
as well. The elementals are energic centers in it. The shades of
departed human beings and animals are also there. Hence, any seer or
entranced person can see in it all that anyone has done or said, as
well as that which has happened to anyone with whom he is connected.
Hence, also, the identity of de-

*Akâsa in the mysticism of the Esoteric Philosophy is, properly speaking,
the female "Holy Ghost;" "Sound" or speech being the Logos - the manifested
Verbum of the unmanifested Mother. See Sânkhyasâra," Preface, page 33 et seq.

ceased persons—who are supposed to
report specially out of this plane—is not to be concluded from the
giving of forgotten or unknown words, facts, or ideas. Out of this
plane of matter can be taken the pictures of all who have ever lived,
and then reflected on a suitable magneto-electrical surface, so as to
seem like the apparition of the deceased, producing all the sensations
of weight, hardness, and extension.

Through the means of the Astral Light and the help of Elementals, the
various material elements may be drawn down and precipitated from the
atmosphere upon either a plane surface or in the form of a solid
object; this precipitation may be made permanent, or it may be of
such a light cohesive power as soon to fade away. But the help of the
elementals can only be obtained by a strong will added to a complete
knowledge of the laws which govern the being or the elementals. It is
useless to give further details on this point; first, because the
untrained student cannot understand; and second, the complete
explanation is not permitted, were it even possible in this space.
The world of the elementals is an important factor in our world and in
the course of the student. Each thought as it is evolved by a man
coalesces instantly with an elemental, and is then beyond the man's
power.

It can be easily seen that this process is going on every instant.
Therefore, each thought exists as an entity. Its length of life
depends on two things: (a) The original force of the person's will
and thought; (b) The power of the elemental which coalesced with it,
the latter being determined by the class to which the elemental
belongs.

This is the case with good and bad thoughts alike, and as the will
beneath the generality of wicked thoughts is usually powerful, we can
see that the result is very important, because the elemental has no
conscience and obtains its constitution and direction from the thought
it may from time to time carry.

Each human being has his own elementals that partake of his nature and
his thoughts. If you fix your thoughts upon a person in anger, or in
critical, uncharitable judgment, you attract to yourself a number of
those elementals that belong to, generate, and are generated by this
particular fault or failing, and they precipitate themselves upon you.
Hence, through the injustice of your merely human condemnation, which
cannot know the source and causes of the action of another, you at
once become a sharer of his fault or failing by your own act, and the
spirit expelled returns "with seven devils worse than himself."

This is the origin of the popular saying that "curses, like chickens,
come home to roost," and has its root in the laws governing magnetic
affinity.

In the Kali-Yuga we are hypnotized by the effect of the immense body
of images in the Astral Light, compounded of all the deeds, thoughts,
and so forth of our ancestors, whose lives tended in a material
direction. These images influence the inner man—who is conscious of
them—by suggestion. In a brighter age the influence of such images
would be towards Truth. The effect of the Astral Light, as thus molded
and painted by us, will remain so long as we continue to place those
images there, and it thus becomes our judge and our executioner. Every
universal law thus con-

tains within itself the means for its own
accomplishment and the punishment for its violation, and requires no
further authority to postulate it or to carry out its decrees.

The Astral Light by its inherent action both evolves and destroys
forms. It is the universal register. Its chief office is that of a
vehicle for the operation of the laws of Karma, or the progress of the
principle of life, and it is thus in a deep spiritual sense a medium
or "mediator" between man and his Deity—his higher spirit.

Theosophy also tells of the origin, history, development and destiny
of mankind.

Upon the subject of Man it teaches:

First. That each spirit is a manifestation of the One Spirit, and thus
a part of all. It passes through a series of experiences in
incarnation, and is destined to ultimate reunion with the Divine.

Second. That this incarnation is not single but repeated, each
individuality becoming re-embodied during numerous existences in
successive races and planets of our chain, and accumulating the
experiences of each incarnation towards its perfection.

Third. That between adjacent incarnations, after grosser elements are
first purged away, comes a period of comparative rest and refreshment,
called Devachan—the soul being therein prepared for its next advent
into material life.

The constitution of man is subdivided in a septenary manner, the main
divisions being those of body, soul and spirit. These divisions and
their relative development govern his subjective condition after
death. The real division cannot be understood, and must for a time
remain esoteric,

because it requires certain senses not usually
developed for its understanding. If the present seven-fold division,
as given by Theosophical writers is adhered to strictly and without
any conditional statement, it will give rise to controversy or error.
For instance, Spirit is not a seventh principle. It is the synthesis,
or the whole, and is equally present in the other six. The present
various divisions can only be used as a general working hypothesis, to
be developed and corrected as students advance and themselves develop.

The state of spiritual but comparative rest known as Devachan is not
an eternal one, and so is not the same as the eternal heaven of
Christianity. Nor does "hell" correspond to the state known to
Theosophical writers as Avitchi.

All such painful states are transitory and purificatory states. When
those are passed the individual goes into Devachan.

"Hell" and Avitchi are thus not the same. Avitchi is the same
as the "second death," as it is in fact annihilation that only comes to the "black Magician" or spiritually wicked, as will be seen further on.

The nature of each incarnation depends upon the balance as struck of
the merit and demerit of the previous life or lives—upon the way in
which the man has lived and thought; and this law is inflexible and
wholly just.

"Karma"—a term signifying two things, the law of ethical causation
(Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap); and the balance or
excess of merit or demerit in any individual, determines also the
main experiences of joy and sorrow in each incarnation, so that what
we call "luck"

Karma is not all exhausted in a single life, nor IS a person
necessarily in this life experiencing the effect of all his previous
Karma; for some may be held back by various causes. The principle
cause is the failure of the Ego to acquire a body which will furnish
the instrument or apparatus in and by which the meditation or thoughts
of previous lives can have their effect and be ripened. Hence it is
held that there is a mysterious power in the man's thoughts during a
life, sure to bring about its results in either an immediately
succeeding life or in one many lives distant; that is, in whatever
life the Ego obtains a body cap-able of being the focus, apparatus, or
instrument for the ripening of past Karma. There is also a swaying or
diverging power in Karma in its effects upon the soul, for a certain
course of life—or thought—will influence the soul in that direction
for sometimes three lives, before the beneficial or bad effect of any
other sort of Karma can be felt. Nor does it follow that every minute
portion of Karma must be felt in the same detail as when produced. for
several sorts of Karma may come to a head together at one point in the
life, and, by their combined effect, produce a result which, while, as
a whole, accurately representing all the elements in it, still is a
different Karma from each single component part. This may be known as
the nullification of the postulated effect of the classes of Karma
involved.

The process of evolution up to reunion with the Divine is and includes
successive elevation from rank to rank of power and usefulness. The
most

exalted beings still in the flesh are known as Sages, Rishis,
Brothers, Masters. Their great function being the preservation at all
times, and when cyclic laws permit, the extension of spiritual
knowledge and influence.

When union with the Divine is effected, all the events and experiences
of each incarnation are known.

As to the process of spiritual development, Theosophy teaches:

First. That the essence of the process lies in the securing of
supremacy, to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's nature.

Second. That this is attained along four lines, among others,—
[a] The entire eradication of selfishness in all forms, and the
cultivation of broad, generous sympathy in, and effort for the good of
others.

(b) The absolute cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by
meditation, by reaching to and communion with the Divine, and by
exercise of the kind described by Patanjali, i.e., incessant striving
to an ideal end.

(c) The control of fleshly appetites and desires, all lower, material
interests being deliberately subordinated to the behests of the
spirit.

(d) The careful performance of every duty belonging to one's station
in life, without desire for reward, leaving results for Divine law.

Third. That while the above is incumbent on and practicable by all
religiously disposed men, a yet higher plane of spiritual attainment
is condi-

tioned upon a specific course of training, physical,
intellectual and spiritual, by which the internal faculties are first
aroused and then developed.

Fourth. That an extension of this process is reached in Adeptship,
Mahâtmâship, or the states of Rishis, Sages and Dhyan Chohans, which
are all exalted stages, attained by laborious self-discipline and
hardship, protracted through possibly many incarnations, and with many
degrees of initiation and preferment, beyond which are yet other
stages ever approaching the Divine.

As to the rationale of spiritual development it asserts:

First. That the process takes place entirely within the individual
himself, the motive, the effort, and the result proceeding from his
own inner nature, along the lines of self-evolution.

Second. That, however personal and interior, this process is not
unaided, being possible, in fact, only through close communion with
the supreme source of all strength.

As to the degree of advancement in incarnations it holds:

First. That even a mere intellectual acquaintance with Theosophic
truth has great value in fitting the individual for a step upwards in
his next earth-life, as it gives an impulse in that direction.

Second. That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety and
beneficence.

Third. That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive and
devoted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore stated.

Fourth. That every race and individual of it reaches in evolution a
period known as "the moment of choice," when they decide for
themselves

their future destiny by a deliberate and conscious choice
between eternal life and death, and that this right of choice is the
peculiar appanage of the free soul. It cannot be exercised until the
man has realized the soul within him, and until that soul has attained
some measure of self-conscious-ness in the body. The moment of choice
is not a fixed period of time; it is made up of all moments. It cannot
come unless all the previous lives have led up to it. For the race as
a whole it has not yet come. Any individual can hasten the advent of
this period for himself under the previously stated law of the
ripening of Karma. Should he then fail to choose right he is not
wholly condemned, for the economy of nature provides that he shall
again and again have the opportunity of choice when the moment arrives
for the whole race. After this period the race, having blossomed,
tends towards its dissolution. A few individuals of it will have
outstripped its progress and attained Adeptship or Mahâtmâship. The
main body, who have chosen aright, but who have not attained
salvation, pass into the subjective condition, there to await the
influx of the human life wave into the next globe, which they are the
first souls to people; the deliberate choosers of evil, whose lives
are passed in great spiritual wicked-ness (for evil done for the sheer
love of evil per se), sever the connection with the Divine Spirit, or
the Monad, which forever abandons the human Ego. Such Egos pass into
the misery of the eighth sphere, as far as we understand, there to
remain until the separation between what they had thus cultivated and
the personal Ishwara or divine spark is complete. But this tenet has
never

been explained to us by the Masters, who have always refused to
answer and to explain it conclusively. At the next Manvantara that
Divine Spark will probably begin again the long evolutionary journey,
being cast into the stream of life at the source and passing upward
again through all the lower forms.

So long as the connection with the Divine Monad is not severed, this
annihilation of personality cannot take place. Something of that
personality will always remain attached to the immortal Ego. Even
after such severance the human being may live on, a man among men—a
soulless being. This disappointment, so to call it, of the Divine
Spark by depriving it of its chosen vehicle constitutes the "sin
against the Holy Ghost," which its very nature forbade it to pardon,
because it cannot continue an association with principles which have
become degraded and vitiated in the absolute sense, so that they no
longer respond to cyclic or evolutionary impulses, but, weighted by
their own nature, sink to the lowest depths of matter. The connection,
once wholly broken, cannot in the nature of Being be resumed. But
innumerable opportunities for return offer themselves throughout the
dissolving process, which lasts thousands of years.

There is also a fate that comes to even Adepts of the Good Law which
is somewhat similar to a loss of "heaven" after its enjoyment for
incalculable periods of time. When the Adept has reached a certain
very high point in his evolution he may by a mere wish, become what
the Hindus call a "Deva"—or lesser god. If he does this, then,
although he will enjoy the bliss and power

of that state for a vast
length of time, he will not at the next Pralaya partake of the
conscious life "in the bosom of the Father," but has to pass down into
matter at the next new "creation," performing certain functions that
could not now be made clear, and has to come up again through the
elemental world; but this fate is not like that of the Black Magician
who falls into Avitchi. And again between the two he can choose the
middle state and become a Nirmânakâya—one who gives up the bliss of
Nirvâna and remains in conscious existence outside of his body after
its death; in order to help Humanity. This is the greatest sacrifice
he can do for mankind. By advancement from one degree of interest and
comparative attainment to another as above stated, the student hastens
the advent of the moment of choice, after which his rate of progress
is greatly intensified.

It may be added that Theosophy is the only system of religion and
philosophy which gives satisfactory explanation of such problems as
these:

First. The object, use, and inhabitation of other planets than this
earth, which planets serve to complete and prolong the evolutionary
course, and to fill the required measure of the universal experience
of souls.

Second. The geological cataclysms of earth; the frequent absence of
intermediate types in its fauna; the occurrence of architectural and
other relics of races now lost, and as to which ordinary science has
nothing but vain conjecture; the nature of extinct civilizations and
the causes of their extinction; the persistence of savagery and the
unequal development of existing civilizations; the differences,
physical and internal, between the var-

ious races of men; the line of
future development. Third. The contrasts and unisons of the world's
faiths, and the common foundation underlying them all.

Fourth. The existence of evil, of suffering, and of sorrow—a hopeless
puzzle to the mere philanthropist or theologian.

Fifth. The inequalities in social condition and privilege; the sharp
contrasts between wealth and poverty, intelligence and stupidity,
culture and ignorance, virtue and vileness; the appearance of men of
genius in families destitute of it, as well as other facts in conflict
with the law of heredity; the frequent cases of unfitness of
environment around individuals, so sore as to embitter disposition,
hamper aspiration, and paralyze endeavor; the violent antithesis
between character and condition; the occurrence of accident,
misfortune and untimely death—all of them problems solvable only by
either the conventional theory of Divine caprice or the Theosophic
doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation.

Sixth. The possession by individuals of psychic powers—clairvoyance,
clairaudience, etc., as well as the phenomena of psychometry and
statuvolism.

Seventh. The true nature of genuine phenomena in spiritualism, and the
proper antidote to superstition and to exaggerated expectation.

Eighth. The failure of conventional religions to greatly extend their
areas, reform abuses, reorganize society, expand the idea of
brotherhood, abate discontent, diminish crime, and elevate humanity;
and an apparent inadequacy to realize in individual lives the ideal
they professedly uphold.